Black Fast : "Terms of Surrender"

Of all the retro thrash acts , here is one who manages to summon riffs as catchy like good thrash used to be. While the opener is all gnashing of teeth, they find  more melody on " the Coming swarm". The bass player of the band really kicks a ton of ass as he rolls very fluidly along side winding gallops.  While the band starts off melodically before they race off for the verse. By this song I get the fact that they can rip it at 100 mph, but now I begin to listen for what else they have in their arsenal.This doesn't exactly happen so "Tongues of Silver" seems to sound like a variation of what came before , but with a dash of old Mastodon to it. They really fly into a blur on
" I Conspire".  This is where the vocal delivery which is more of a dry mid range snarl, begins to get a bit stale.

"Haunted Vigil" continues to bulldoze over you. The chug here is more straight forward than some of the more fierce sinew the guitar flexes earlier in the album. They retain the brazen power and rely on the energetic assault to keep the momentum going even when things become dynamically mono-chrome. Even with the acoustic intro to the more deliberate "the Fall" when they hit the gas things begin to run together. The riffs find an occasional hook and the guitar solo certainly rips, but what they first hit me with begins to wane. "Vacuous Idol" is another speed fest, and  in all fairness back in the day thrash was often referred to as speed metal. This is head banging material for sure, but little screams for you to mosh, which was the break down of the 80s. The end the album with the brisk three and a half minute "Until Dust" which doesn't really go anywhere.

These guys are fast and intense. They attack their instruments as much as they play them. However they are also pretty much a one trick pony. They just color this trick in different shades shades of fast and mean. Sure you can say "well thrash is supposed to be like that because of it's punk roots" but some of the greatest thrash bands,...Testament, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Nuclear Assualt, Flotsam & Jetsam... prove this is not the case. So I'll give this one a 7.5.